TAPEHEADS: THE JOSH JOHNSON INTERVIEW

Josh Johnson directed Rewind This!, a documentary that traces the impact of the VHS tape and Home Video Industry boom period of the 1980s. The words ‘Home Video Industry’ are capitalized for a simple reason – I worked in the Australian video sector from 1986 to 2005 and hold that little black plastic box and all it represents in the highest regard. Clearly, talking of the industry’s impact with Johnson, a loud and proud video-phile, was an indulgent thrill; from his New York City base, he discusses his earliest home video memories, the impact of the new distribution model and the legacy left by VHS. Rewind This! is currently finding extensive film festival exposure internationally.

There is an element of smugness or hipster-cool superiority when some artists or commentators look back at the 1980s. You admirably refuse to do that in Rewind This!

I’ve tried to be very sincere, as much as that might not be the most popular attitude to have right now. I feel very emotionally attached to this period and these people and I wanted to make something that a lot of people can identify with and can make them feel good.

The very first movies I watched on home video were Apocalypse Now and Stripes, two films that I shouldn’t have watched at my tender age but, it being the pre-certificate, non-ratings days…well, my parents didn’t know any better.

My parents were actually very restrictive and by the time that I became aware of VHS tapes and began renting, there certainly were ratings on all of the films and I was not able to access all of the films I wanted to see. Discovering nudity or extreme violence, for me came about because of cable. My earliest memory of VHS was entirely based upon whatever my parents would bring home for me from the video store, like The Neverending Story or all those animated films. It wasn’t until I was able to start my own collection that I was able broaden my perspective on films. The films that really marked my obsession with the totality of cinema and how different films relate and connect to one another were the Gremlins film (pictured, right). They had so many references to other films, they helped me understanding that there was a whole other world of films out there and that the video store was a great way to find them.

They were both crucial to my love of cinema, as well. I was fortunate to have interviewed Joe Dante a couple of years back…

I actually contacted him about doing an interview for Rewind This! but the scheduling didn’t work out. He would have been a great interview to have because he really hates VHS, carries no affection for the format at all (laughs).

I don’t believe ‘The Home Video Boom” is ever given enough credit for the careers of people like Schwarzennegger, Van Damme (pictured, below) or Bruce Willis. Suddenly every village had a VCR and the only way to tap those developing world dollars was to remove the English language barrier and blow things up.

Absolutely. There was that time in film history where historians argue that film became globalised and what they are talking about is when major metropolitan cities across the world were playing imported films. When, if you were living in a big city anywhere in the world you could see a Bergman or a Kurosawa film. But I would argue that when film really became globalised was when home video took hold and every corner store had shelves flooded with content. Suddenly, populations were watching films from other countries without even realising it. There was no longer any demarcation between what was foreign and domestic.

That ‘Boom’ happened so quickly, accelerated so exponentially. Has there been a time, or will there ever be a time again, when the consumer experiences something like the VCR/VHS penetration period?

I can’t think of any entertainment technology quite as transformative as home video. Home video was the probably the most significant development in cinema history since the birth of the artform itself. Things like sound and the birth of the talkies were all significant but those were all changes to how film was created. Home video changed how films were consumed and absorbed. The accepted method of distribution, of the studio controlling the distribution of theatrical titles, was subverted. Home video allowed the consumer to take true ownership of the medium, of the films that you wanted to see. That is something that completely changed the film industry in a way that had never happened before. Everything since – DVD, downloading, whatever – are just new versions of the home video concept. I don’t think there will ever be something that shakes up the whole system quite so dramatically ever again.

What has been the lasting sociological impact stemming from that unique sensation we all experienced of being the first generation of moviegoers that were able to bring the movie we wanted home with us?

What it did was create a sense of entitlement. I don’t really want to get into whether I think that is necessarily a good thing, but…well, it’s definitely true. Now, we feel entitled to have control over how we view certain media. Our parents were beholden to local broadcast schedules or local revival houses if they ever wanted to see a movie that they knew they might never be able to see again. Our generation, thanks to home video, feels we have a God-given right to watch what we want to watch when we want to watch it. That has changed how the entire film industry has worked, changing it irreversibly.